Technologizer

5Words for February 17th, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Except for phones, pretty quiet: Facebook: Users control their info. Pirate Bay escapes some charges. One charger for every phone. Nokia puts Skype on phones. Satellite radio may sidestep bankruptcy. Card counting’s easier with iPhone. Toshiba buys Fujitsu drive business. Canon sues over fake blogger.

Did Apple Just Corner the Market on Multi-Touch? I Hope Not!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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“We have invented a new technology called multi-touch…and it’s phenomenal.” –Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo 2007 keynote that introduced the iPhone Lemme begin with my usual disclaimers: I’m not a patent attorney. Scratch that: When it comes to the mysteries of patent law, I’m not even a well-informed layman. But I do know that I’m bothered [...]

Palm Responds to Apple iPhone Patent Warnings

Friday, January 23, 2009

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First, Apple COO Tim Cook seemed to throw a brushback pitch at Palm’s upcoming Pre phone by talking about how vigorously Apple would defend its intellectual property immediately after a financial analyst had mentioned the Pre. Which left lots of folks with the impression that he might be suggesting that the Pre violated Apple patents [...]

For What They’re Worth, Some Apple Phone Patent Filings

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

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I have no idea whether Apple will sue Palm or any other competitor for violating its intellectual property rights. But I do know this: I love patent drawings. So here are a few from Apple patent filings relating to touch interfaces and phones, which I dug up, as usual, at Google Patents. They shed no [...]

Report: Windows Mobile 6.5 to Launch Midyear

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

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Microsoft will distribute Windows Mobile 6.5 to its partners after it launches the OS at the Mobile World Congress in February, according to a report by DigiTimes. Microsoft will continue to rely upon current business model of working with phone manufacuters to deliver Windows Mobile based products on the market, the report said. DigiTimes’ sources told [...]

Is Apple Going to Sue Palm Over Multi-Touch?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

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I don’t want to start any wild, unfounded rumors, but I just got off Apple’s conference call on its quarterly financial results, and towards the end of the call Apple COO Tim Cook started getting very protective of Apple’s intellectual property in the form of iPhone related patents. In answer to a question about iPhone [...]

A MobileMe Rival From Microsoft?

Monday, January 19, 2009

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Neowin is reporting that Microsoft plans to unveil a mobileservice called SkyBox at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It’s supposedly similar to Apple’s MobileMe–although I hope it works a whole lot better–and syncs e-mail, SMS, calendar info, and photos from device to device via the cloud. (Neowin says it “could be” available on [...]

Technologizer Predictions: What Could Be in 2009

Monday, January 12, 2009

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Back on December 31st, I asked the Technologizer community to make technology-related predictions for the year ahead. You made scads of them–from ones that seem like sure bets for 2009 to ones that might never come to be. Highlights follow after the jump–thanks to everyone who contributed. Once 2010 rolls around, let’s rate the accuracy [...]

SlingPlayer Mobile: Coming Soon to an iPhone Near You

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

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Sling Media’s Slingbox TV place-shifting box was meant to hook up with the iPhone. (Which is a self-serving thing of me to say–I own a Slingbox and an iPhone, and one of the things I miss about my old AT&T Tilt phone is the ability to watch stuff stored on my TiVo back home on [...]

A Few Details About Palm’s New Phone?

Monday, January 5, 2009

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CrunchGear is reporting just enough rumor about the first phone based on Palm’s upcoming “Nova” OS to be tantalizing but unsatisfying: It’ll supposedly have a slide-out keyboard and a software store. And the new OS is said to be “amazing.” I’m looking forward to Thursday’s Palm event at CES, when all–or at least more than [...]

Next Stop for iPhone OS and Android: Computers?

Friday, January 2, 2009

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Two new rumors this week are different in the details but share an interesting overarching theme: TechCrunch is reporting that Apple is working on an iPhone OS-based tablet computer that’s essentially a giant iPod Touch for release this fall, and VentureBeat has a fascinating post that not only shows Google’s Android OS running on an [...]

Wal-Mart to Sell the iPhone: Nothing to See Here

Friday, December 26, 2008

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It’s felt all but official for weeks, but now it’s officially official: Wal-Mart will begin selling iPhones on Sunday. The one thing that was intriguing about the rumor version of this news was the theory that it would offer a 4GB version for $99. But as I suspected, the retailing behemoth will sell the same [...]

Can Nova Save Palm?

Monday, December 15, 2008

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BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows has a good piece up on Palm’s upcoming next-generation phone operating system, which is code-named “Nova.” The story doesn’t give away any real details on the new platform, other than to confirm that it’ll be unveiled at CES next month. (I’ll be at the event and will liveblog it here at Technologizer.) [...]

Apple Patentmania: 31 Years of Big Ideas

Monday, December 15, 2008

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Apple may be famously secretive, but there’s one guy the company has been confiding in for more than three decades now. That would be its Uncle Sam, in the form of the U.S. Patent Office. The company’s patent filings are a remarkable record of Apple’s brainstorms, from its biggest blockbusters to its most humbling flops [...]

AT&T’s Web Site Starts Selling iPhones Again

Thursday, December 11, 2008

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Good news, and just in time for those of you who were planning to dole out one or more iPhones for the holidays, or gift one to yourself: The AT&T Wireless site is now letting you buy iPhone 3Gs online. It’s the first time you’ve been able to do the whole transaction without leaving the [...]

How Low Can iPhones Go? Wal-Mart Says $99. Maybe. (Actually, I Kind of Doubt It.)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

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Boy Genius Report, which has a pretty good record for reporting stuff about phones before anybody else, has posted about the possibility of a $99 4GB iPhone to be sold exclusively by Wal-Mart. It does look like Wal-Mart will become the fourth iPhone seller (after Apple itself, AT&T, and Best Buy). But Boy Genius goes [...]